Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Should you wash your clothes in hotter water?

Your laundry could be making you ill, a hygiene expert has warned, as new figures show four in ten washes are done on settings too cold to kill bacteria.

Wow, good thing I don't do the laundry!

According to waste charity Wrap, the proportion of washes being done at 86°F has risen four fold from around one in ten (12 per cent) in 2012 to around four in ten (38 per cent) in 2016.

The dramatic increase in families using colder washing machine settings over the past four years is largely down to environmental campaigns by giant companies which make washing powder, like Unilever and Procter & Gamble, Wrap said.

Lisa Ackerley, a leading hygiene expert, warned that washes at 86°C are too cold to kill bacteria on fabrics, meaning "clean" clothes could make people ill.

"Underwear, bedsheets and tea towels should be washed at much higher temperatures like 140 or 194° as potentially harmful pathogens may not be killed at 86°. It's especially important to take extra care with washing for vulnerable groups like babies, elderly people and those with chronic illnesses as they are more likely to become ill."